America’s Political Plundering

By Nomad_Soul @Adobe Stock

Brazen Waste, Fraud, Misuse of Funds

Fraud in US government spending? How ridiculous! What fraud? There’s nothing to see here, the US media assures Americans. According to that media, yes, the same media who told Americans to trust them, that President Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack” …

“At Oval Office, Musk Makes Broad Claims of Federal Fraud Without Proof,” said a New York Times headline this week. No proof of fraud? How much do you want?

According to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last spring, it’s estimated the “federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.” The federal auditor recommends “a government-wide approach” to address it and urges the Treasury to “leverage data-analytics capabilities” to stop questionable payments.

Here’s what DOGE is trying to do, according to editors of the WSJ.

GAO earlier estimated that 11% to 15% of unemployment benefits during the pandemic were fraudulent, totaling between $100 billion and $135 billion. Some of the money went to transnational gangs, prisoners, and state-sponsored hackers. The Labor Department inspector general estimated at least $191 billion in improper pandemic unemployment payments.

As the phrase “constitutional crisis” is being flung around like confetti at a ticker day parade, there is “comity and concord.” Barton Swaim writes in the WSJ. Democrats seem to have gone quiet, unable perhaps to keep up with Donald Trump’s broad, almost maniacal activity. They are finding it tough to keep up with and formulate coherent responses.

Migrant Caravans 

In Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton has questions. Why, after USAID was “disrupted,” did migrant caravans suddenly melt away? Who was putting up the money for these caravans? Did much of it come from the U.S. taxpayer?

We have been treated to extensive reporting of caravans of thousands of people trekking north from South America, through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. These treks take weeks. During that time, the people appear to be well fed. They seem to have camping supplies and equipment that magically appear for them to sleep at night. The cost of organizing one of these caravans and feeding and supplying it has to run into the many millions of dollars.

Services in the U.S. to illegal aliens. 

As Mr. Menton next points out, services to illegals once in the US can vary greatly from place to place, including “everything from food to shelter to medical care to help finding a permanent home.”

Many to most illegal aliens also seem to have access to legal advice on how to avoid getting deported or how to present a claim for asylum. How much of all of this gets funded by the federal taxpayer? As another gigantic example, illegal aliens are supposedly not eligible for Medicaid and other federal taxpayer?

As another gigantic example, illegal aliens are supposedly not eligible for Medicaid and other federal medical assistance. Does anybody think that the Biden administration actually enforced this rule? How many illegal aliens in fact are receiving (federally funded) medical care?

DEI 

On 11 February, Fox News reported that DOGE had found and cut some $100 million of spending in the Department of Education directed toward DEI training programs in public schools. Although that’s a good start, writes MC, it is probably only the tip of the ice-burg of total spending on DEI.

Over the past few years, a whole infrastructure of “diversity, equity and inclusion” stuff has been put together — staffs in every business and school, training programs, curricula, books, etc., etc. Who has been paying for this, particularly in the education sector? How much have the federal taxpayers been spending to support this propaganda?

Climate Alarm 

As with DEI, schools are filled with an infrastructure of climate alarm propaganda, ranging from staff training to curricula to textbooks and more. How much is the federal government spending on this?

Mr. Menton writes about a few abuses that have recently occurred to him. The funding model of an agency like USAID, he explains, appears to be the making of multi-million dollar grants to left-wing NGOs for high-minded sounding topics like “promoting democracy.” These NGO’s then spend the money as they see fit.

Francis Menton wouldn’t be surprised if we started to learn that things like Antifa and Black Lives Matter got large amounts of back-door funding that originated with the federal taxpayer. How about the wave of antisemitic demonstrations and riots that broke out on U.S. campuses in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre? Was federal taxpayer money involved in supporting that? Menton also would be surprised if fed money wasn’t involved.